by Brad Cunningham

Created on: September 21, 2008

The alarm went off, but it needn't have. I hadn't slept at all. It wasn't that I was nervous, or even excited - I just didn't sleep. It was like having caffeine too close to bedtime. I wanted to sleep, but couldn't. My watch was first, followed quickly by the wake up call from the front desk - not one of those automated ones, but the actual person, who was definitely not amused at having to call me at 3:30 am. I went through my normal pre-race routine and left the room for the lobby and the $30, five minute cab ride to the bus.

For years, I had wanted to visit Iceland, but living in Canada made it a very expensive trip. It wasn't until I saw an entry form for the Laugavegur 55k ultramarathon at a local running store that I finally had my incentive to make the trip. My first visit to Iceland and my first ultra rolled into one trip.

The race start was about 2.5 hours from Reykjavik, so the volunteers loaded us on buses and drove us out to the middle of Iceland. The race route follows the Laugavegur, a four day hiking trail, which is the namesake of the race. The bus ride was uneventful, except that our bus, upon leaving the pavement and driving along barren, rocky, Icelandic roads, crossed rivers. Twice.

We arrived at the trailhead at 8:00am and had an hour to prepare for the race. I had dropped off a bag the day before at the package pick up so that it would be available to me halfway through the race an extra shirt, extra water bottles, extra salt, and gels. I hadn't been sure what to expect in terms of weather, so I brought an outfit for every occasion. As it turned out, the weather was pretty ideal - cloudless to start and warm, cooling off as the clouds rolled in during the latter part of the race. I didn't do too much warm up as nervous anxiety had caught up to me and I was trying to determine who the "contenders" were. Ultra runners are a quirky bunch and I had a hard time picking out whom I should key off of, but in the end, it didn't really matter. I was to learn that there is no one's race matters except your own.

From information gleaned from the race website, I knew the beginning was the most challenging part of the course; therefore, I started out conservatively. However, after the first 100m there is a technical climb right, so I knew I had to be near the front or else I would lose contact with the frontrunners. I made sure I situated myself well, going up the climb in 8th spot, but I still feelt as though I wasn't working too hard. My breathing was

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